Home?
by Lieutenant-Hawkaye
Summary: After a tough start in life, abuse, no mother and being on her own, Riza ends up on the streets after her father's death. Out of her own choice but her soldier in blue uniform still saves her from the cold.
1. Close Escape

_Keep away from them._ She had been told many a time by the other people who haunted the streets of Central. To stay clear of the soldiers was the only way to survive out here and getting caught could mean instant death for anyone that they suspected was living here, just as she was.

Riza pushed her hands deeper into her deceased father's old trench coat, one of the few things she took from the house she grew up in. She didn't want to stay in the home where he studied, lived, learnt the secret of Flame Alchemy and he- She shook her head, the last one filled her nightmares enough, she didn't need it clogging up her conscious hours too.

The road Riza was walking along was overflowing with snow and dirt, creating a concoction of the two so it resembled nothing more than melted ice-cream. She shook her head, she knew she shouldn't have thought of that, now her stomach began growling. She silently told it, _Be quiet, there is no point moaning._ and as Riza walked she hoped no one could hear her stomach begging for food. She had not eaten in three days so she didn't blame it, but she had to earn the money to get the food.

Just behind the few people in front of her, Riza spotted her usual 'begging bench' as she called it. It was where she sat looking sorry for herself for most for the day to attempt to get money for food. However, she hadn't been able to get much lately and the boys weren't happy.

'The boys' weren't really boys, they were men that she lived with in an alley a few blocks away from where she sat now. There were four of them: Breda, Falman, Fuery and Havoc. Riza didn't know if they were first names, last names or nicknames, and she didn't care. They were kind enough to let her stay with them and as long as she did as they told her, she could stay as long as she wanted.

They had suggested that she became a 'Lady of the Night' because Fuery had pointed out she would be " _attractive is you cleaned your face."_ and to her displeasure the other three agreed. But after she told them she was barely 16, which was a slight lie, only by a couple years, they felt less inclined to the idea.

That is the reason Riza was sat on her bench with her knees pulled up to her chin, dead eyes watching everyone who walked past, occasionally calling out for change. She hated this, being homeless and asking strangers for money, it was humiliating.

She had brought money with her but it soon ran out, and so did the cans of food she had put into her rucksack, Breda was to blame for that. She did slightly resent Havoc for twisting her arm into letting him buy cigarettes with some of the money, then maybe they wouldn't be in this mess quite yet. It would have been another week and this would be the position she would be in.

Riza didn't blame anyone but herself for the mess she was in, she could have stayed in the house until she got kicked out because her father was dead and her mother died during childbirth. She didn't have any friends she could ask to stay with, so this was her only option other than to stay in a dead house, where dead people lived, on her own.

The cold had began biting at her face so she put her face between her knees and chest to give it some heat. It was rare that the winter dampness didn't find its way into her bones, it was times like this she wished she had the courage to walk into Madame Christmas' bar and ask if she could lend her services there. _No,_ she thought, she would never forgive herself, and not forgetting her vandalised back.

Another reason for the oversized trench coat was to completely cover her back so she didn't get any suspicious looks and its thickness meant that no one could feel it. Her father wasn't exactly gentle or accurate when he was in one of his moods, caring least for Riza's safety or wellbeing.

Whilst she was trying to push the triggering childhood memories out of her mind, Riza heard a small clatter of coins in the tin cup she had set down beside her.

"Mister, are you feeling okay?" Riza looked up to see a small child pulling at her trouser leg and looking up at her with an extremely concerned expression on her face. At least the short hair was doing its work, fooling people of her true identity. The girl's face changed to surprise when Riza looked up but she smiled wanly.

"Hello, I am fine thank you, was that you who put money in my cup?" The girl, still transfixed by Riza, smiled and nodded.

"Yes, it's not much because mama won't let me give too much to strangers." She said, gesturing to a woman stood a little way behind her, "You're not a boy, are you?" She added, skeptically. Riza nodded, and waved thanks to the woman a few feet away from her, she turned away and crossed her arms.

Taking no notice, Riza turned her attention back to the child. "Thank you so much, and no, I am a girl, a very unlucky one." The girl tilted her head and her round green eyes flooded with saddened curiosity.

"But, but you are really pretty and really nice, nice people shouldn't be on the streets." _So she understood why she was giving me money,_ Riza thought. She had to look away for a minute to get herself together, she was happy this was what the next generation was going to be like.

"I had to leave home, both my parents died and-" Riza was cut off by the woman swooping upon the two of them and taking her daughter away by the arm and hissed something like "Don't talk to strangers." The girl turned around as she was ushered away to give Riza a wave, she waved back and a tear ran down her face. The first happy tear since she left home.

As the pair walked away, Riza wondered what it would be like to have a mother, a warm person to cuddle and hold when she had a bad day, a person to understand and listen to her. A person to protect her from the cold and people she was afraid of. Now the purpose of the tears changed.

Angrily wiping her cheeks, Riza sniffed and stood up, _stop being so childish,_ she told herself. Again she began trudging down the street to clear her head, shoving the cup and change into her pocket as she went.

Riza stopped in front of a window of a closed shop and stared blankly at her reflection. She had been pretty, but with the grime, greyish skin and greasy hair it was hard to tell she had been. The girl's words had made her feel better, she admitted to herself but she was only a hollow shell of the person she once was. She smiled weakly and began up the street again.

Her ears picked up splashes of shoes coming toward her, she turned around to see who it was. Was it one of the boys trying to find her? The glimpse of blue uniform gave her the answer, it wasn't any of the boys. She began walking faster, but not so fast she fell over and became prey to the soldier.

"Girl, stop walking." A deep voice ordered her, but instead Riza bolted. She began running in the direction of the alley she lived in, but she heard heavy footsteps steadily following her. _Why is he following me?_ The soldiers didn't make a habit of chasing after their prey, they usually made their prey come to them.

Riza kept skidding around the corners of buildings and down alleyways in an attempt to lose him, but to no avail. Turning the corner at Madame Christmas' bar she fell on her back but jumped back on her feet, paying no attention to the pain in the back of her head.

The soldier was still following Riza by the time she was a street away from her alley, she had to think of something fast. There was a house across the street that had a broken bay window, so she ran over the road and jumped through and hid below it.

There was broken glass everywhere, some digging into her hands and knees, possibly puncturing her skin, but she couldn't give herself away now. Riza held her breath and waited for the man to go past.

The footsteps slowed, still on the other side of the street to her relief, she stayed as still as her pained body would let her. Riza heard him ask people if they had seen a young girl with short, blonde hair, but none had.

To her surprise, he began shouting. "Where are you? I am trying to help you, not hurt you." She rolled her eyes, _help me die, probably._ She still stayed silent until she heard his footsteps disappear back the way he came.

Poking her head over the top of the window sill to make sure he was gone, she began to start climbing over it and checked the street again.

There he was. He stood at the end of street still looking for her, and he turned slightly in Riza's direction and she froze. _Please don't see me, please._ She was sure he had seen her but why didn't he chase after her?

He shouted again, but this time it felt like he was talking to her directly, sending a shiver down her back. "If you want to find me, girl, I am Lieutenant Colonel Roy Mustang." Their eyes met for a long second and then he just walked away, as if nothing happened. Riza stood there for another second, confused and then bolted for the alley to find the boys and tell them what just happened.


	2. Capture

As Riza rounded the corner to her shared home - alley way, she remembered that she didn't get very much money that day so the boys weren't going to be happy with her at all. She put her hands in her pockets to fish out the money she had got so she could count it. Her pockets were both empty, then she remembered that she had fallen over earlier when she was being chased and groaned. They are going to kill me when I get back.

Shuffling her feet as she approached the threadbare blanket that was slung across the alley, Riza kept her head low as if to try to clear it before she had to face them. She pushed the makeshift 'door' out of the way, no one greeted her right away. Fuery was the first to notice her and waved his gloved hand in her direction, smiling.

"Hey, Hawkeye." He called, softly. She hadn't told them her first name, for no reason other than she didn't want them to know it. They probably didn't use their full or real names so why should she? Fuery patted the crate next to his, Riza obeyed and sat next to him and the fire. She noticed Havoc was lying down on his bench that he had somehow stole from the park down the road, no one knew how he had done it.

"Hello, Fuery, do you know where Breda and Falman are?" Riza asked, looking around the alley's dead end. Fuery shrugged his shoulders and mumbled something about fuel for the fire.

"Do I not get a welcome, Hawkers?" Havoc jibed, playfully from his bench. Riza laughed and greeted the blond man by walking over to him and taking his cigarette that he had held loosely in his hand. He stood up from the bench and pretended to chase her.

Havoc was the only one who really understood she was still a child and played with her like this, even though she was 16 years old - to his knowledge. He wasn't much older than herself, maybe only a year or so.

After a stern word from Fuery about "wasting valuable energy" the two blonds stopped their game and Riza gave Havoc his cigarette back, he went back to his bench and she sat back on her crate. The edge of the blanket twitched open and two men came around it, arms laden with broken planks of wood, sticks and old newspapers.

"We could hear you two messing about down the street, are you trying to get us killed?" The shorter of the men growled in Havoc and Riza's direction. His hard, black eyes staring Riza down, until finally she shifted her whisky eyes to the fire. He threw the fire fuel on the floor next to Fuery, Falman did the same, but a little more gently than his companion.

Falman moved over to where Havoc was lying and started a quiet conversation with him about nothing in particular, and Breda sat forcibly onto one of the remaining three crates opposite Fuery and Riza. He looked steadily at her again, waiting for her to notice and sure enough she did.

"How much did you get today, girl?" He growled in the same tone he used before. Riza lowered her head so that her fringe covered her face from him, he tapped his foot, waiting for an answer.

"I, um, don't know…" She whispered, Breda scared her, he had the same aura about him that her father had. He scoffed, Riza tried to make herself smaller.

"What is that supposed to mean, can't you count? Pass it here and I'll do it." Riza remained silent for a second, thinking of how to reply to him.

"I was being chased… I fell and it must've fallen out of my pocket… I'm sorry." She fidgeted, what was he going to do? She heard his crate creak from the pressure of his weight being released from it. His footsteps came around the braiser quickly and stopped in between the fire and Riza.

She looked up in time to see his hand raise above his head, and the crack that occurred when his hand connected with her face resounded around the boxed-in alley. Riza didn't move for a second, pain and shock paralysing her for that time.

"Breda, don't be an asshole. Do you not remember what she told us about her father and the way he treated her?" Havoc piped up, angrily from his bench. He got up and moved over to where Riza was sat with the other man stood over her, menacingly. He shoved him out of the way and took Riza gently by the arm and lead her to his bench, still in a trance.

He sat her down and wrapped his blanket around her and checked her face where she had been hit. She still didn't say anything or react when he touched her face to see where it would swell and if it hurt her. Everyone else was silent as this happened, Havoc gave up trying to coax words or movements out of her and pulled her into his chest and held her there.

"Havoc, don't baby her. It's a harsh world, she needs to learn to that at some point and that money she got today could have fed us for at least another day." Breda sat down on Riza's crate and crossed his arms out of pure exasperation. Havoc ignored him and sat still with Riza in his arms, limp as a doll.

"Havoc, seriously, I am at the end of my rope and I think we all know what I am going to say now, don't we?" Breda eyed up the blond man again, and to everyone's surprise, Riza nodded. She pushed away from Havoc, who protested but she shut him down as soon as he started.

Handing him his blanket back, she began walking, as if in slow-motion, toward the alley entrance. Fuery took her arm as she walked past him, she looked down at him with watery brown eyes and he let his grasp loosen and she walked out of the alley back into the harsh world.

As Riza started walking down the street she could hear the voices of the men arguing but she didn't care, Breda wanted her gone, so she'd go. He was their ringleader, if you didn't do as you were told you were attacked or thrown out, or in her case - both.

She felt like she had been walking around Central for hours with her head down and her hands in her pockets before she bumped into anyone, phsyically. Riza bumped directly into someone and didn't have the energy to apologise, so she walked around them in the hopes they wouldn't notice her. A hand blocked her path.

"Are you the girl my colleague was looking for earlier today?" A soft male voice spoke down to her. Riza looked up to see a soldier wearing rectangular glasses over a pair of bright green eyes. Their eyes met for a second then Riza willed her body to move away from him, and it did but slowly at first.

She span around so that her back was facing the man and she forced herself to run. Surely enough his footsteps ensued, but he was a lot faster than his friend from the morning, she'd have a harder job losing this one.

He managed to stay right on her tail at all times but he never tried to grab her, I wonder why? But before she could think of any possibilities she skidded around one final corner and straight into the soldier from earlier on in the day. She couldn't even think of running away from him before she was grabbed from behind.

"Ha, we have you. Try not to hit your head on the way into the car." Confused, Riza ducked her head into the car. She didn't want to obey but she felt it was the right thing to do, there was no point struggling since she had nowhere to go now. She was sat into the back seat of a black patrol car and seatbelted in before her arms were released.

The men got into the front seats, the one with glasses in front of her, and the other was on the driver's side. They quickly sped away and they remained silent for a few minutes.

"As I said earlier, I have no intention of hurting you, that's the last thing I want to do in fact. Co-operate and you can get everything you lost back." So, he is the same guy. Riza snorted, everything she had is now dead, there was no way of getting it back, ever. She gazed out of the window the remainder of the ride, up until they reached Central Barracks. Then she stared.

Riza had never seen such a large, white building, not even the hospital, that she was in and out of quite a lot as a child, was this massive. The drive up to it was also impressive, a man made pond split the drive into two. And people complain about the amount of people like me on the streets? It did appear like most of the money that Central City had was spent only on this one building.

The driving soldier stopped the car at the gates and whilst he waited for them to open he turned to face Riza, black eyes searching her face. "Do you remember who I am?" He asked, she stayed silent but he smiled.

"I am Roy, Roy Mustang and this is my friend Maes Hughes. Can I ask your name?" Riza wasn't sure what to make of the men, but she felt she could trust them, especially the one who called himself 'Mustang'.

Before she could stop herself, she blurted, "Riza Hawkeye." Mustang smiled wider and nodded. He waved at the gateman and drove straight into Central Barracks.


End file.
